The Daily Blog Open Mic – Friday – 4th September 2020

The fascinating case of our health structure. The Canterbury District Health Board. Amazing – you wouldn’t read about it – but I just did. The Standard has got an awesome tag called You Couldn’t Make This Shit Up. This is Government how we like it? Or how we have left it, how it has sneaked up on our complacency, on our someone ought to fix this, on our SEP (Someone Else’s Problem), on our Leaky Government maintenance practices – see NZ Government covered in toxic fungus!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/425213/ta-mark-solomon-accuses-ministry-of-bias-against-canterbury-district-health-board

I think this is the start of a Pass the Parcel saga about our health system – every day someone new will strip off the paper covering and a new riddle and brain-teaser will appear. Something to do while we wait for the election at which we will vote Labour or Greens, and start repairing New Zealand with new zeal. That’s if you have a practical bent, and care half a stuff.

Our man tidying up Health: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/424307/dhb-resignations-there-s-a-kind-of-resistance-to-a-different-point-of-view
Levy here is Crown Monitor over Canterbury District Health Board – a public entity.
Dr Levy, an experienced senior health administrator and former chairperson of both Waitemata and Counties-Manukau DHBs, told Nine to Noon he was brought on board last year because of the serious financial position of the Canterbury DHB – at the time it was seriously deteriorating, he said…
He said the context was more complex, because Canterbury had experienced a lot of difficulties, however, since 2014-2015 revenue has increased from $1.55 billion to $2.06b – a 33 percent increase.
“An appointment of this nature is a signal to the organisation that there is diminishing confidence in its ability to manage its finances.”
Costs had risen from $1.57bn to $2.21bn – a 41 percent increase. “So there’s a sustained expenditure gap between what is coming in as revenue and what is being spent.”

So the whole matter is to squeeze services to fit the money on offer, not to provide the services needed in a city still suffering from the effects of numerous earthquakes on buildings and people, and years of neglect towards the City’s needs. And someone from the private sector is brought in to do so, thus guaranteeing that there will always be a denial of service to real needs by these puffed-up money men clustering around this busy and festering money pot that is health.

Dr Lester Levy here has a position with Southern Cross private health :
https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/nz/news/breaking-news/southern-cross-health-society-names-strategic-advisor-172299.aspx
Jul.10/19 Reporting to CEO Nick Astwick, Dr Levy will interface with the global and local health insurance, medical and academic communities to keep New Zealand’s leading health insurer at the forefront of innovation.
His PR line: In the newly created role, [Strategic Advisor] Levy will look at the future of healthcare in a part-time capacity, advising and helping to shape the insurer’s overall strategy. In particular, he will be responsible for evolving the future operating model and plans for digital health and value-based contracting to achieve optimum health outcomes. Levy will also interface with the global and local health insurance, medical and academic communities, and will report to Southern Cross Health Society CEO Nick Astwick.
Levy brings extensive knowledge of the health sector, having started his working life as a medical doctor. He then became a chief executive, entrepreneur and chair of boards of directors across a diverse range of industry sectors.

Lester Levy was appointed as Crown Monitor I think by Dr David Clark, previous Health Minister. He appointed Levy to replace Mr Chai Chuah, previously Malaysian who had been ‘prominent’ in our Health Service for 25 years. (Nobody seems to be steady and reliable and able to juggle health needs, building requirements, and a budget satisfactorily.)
Mr Chai Chuah’s PR line: He has a passion for building a health system together with other partners, which is powered by the needs of the people it serves and which is prepared for rapid changes in technology and demographics.
He is focused on driving change in the way the health system works with other public services, communities and other non-public services partners to improve health outcomes, increase access to quality care, improve financial and clinical sustainability, and to develop a unified health system.

It can be seen that when there are private business heads involved – that priorities may be shifted radically. This is how a report on Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital rotated.
But the LTIP report did not go directly to the minister. Instead, it went to the Capital Investment Committee (CIC), a body charged with advising the minister on spending priorities. CIC members are drawn from the public health sector and private commerce; its chair is Evan Davies, boss of Todd Property and former boss of Sky City Entertainment Group.
Levy said he did not know what happened to the report. But he does know the CIC works very slowly. It’s not a problem limited to healthcare; he sees the same in transport. He painted a picture of high-powered committees, set up to help government spend tax dollars efficiently, that slow everything down and bury urgent proposals in a bureaucratic mire.
Apr.14/18 Lester Levy: The health boss who’s had enough
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12032034

But Levy is also Chair of Auckland Transport. Does he know when’s he’s had enough?
He is/was: He is chairman for the environmental and engineering consultancy Tonkin + Taylor.
Jun 5, 2019 – Dr Lester Levy joins AUT as its new Professor of Digital Health Leadership.
Background: He is South African. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11307327 – 2014 Twelve Questions: Lester Levy

This guy is a one man band and it makes me feel queasy thinking about the others like him, taking charge of our government services and running them to suit others’ criteria not ours, not our needs, not our timelines. There will be a number of them who will wield a lot of power – some to be seen as go-to men and women when the government and officials are in a spot that they can’t find listed in the neolib manual of fibs and lies.

Now for some light relief while the above facts get digested. Two one-man bands for your gratification:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0caSdOgTgk Anderz Flanderz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXMuWi0dUBc CigoMan Band, Croatia.

2 COMMENTS

Greywarbler September 4, 2020 At 1:59 pm

The fascinating case of our health structure. The Canterbury District Health Board. Amazing – you wouldn’t read about it – but I just did. The Standard has got an awesome tag called You Couldn’t Make This Shit Up. This is Government how we like it? Or how we have left it, how it has sneaked up on our complacency, on our someone ought to fix this, on our SEP (Someone Else’s Problem), on our Leaky Government maintenance practices – see NZ Government covered in toxic fungus!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/425213/ta-mark-solomon-accuses-ministry-of-bias-against-canterbury-district-health-board

I think this is the start of a Pass the Parcel saga about our health system – every day someone new will strip off the paper covering and a new riddle and brain-teaser will appear. Something to do while we wait for the election at which we will vote Labour or Greens, and start repairing New Zealand with new zeal. That’s if you have a practical bent, and care half a stuff.

Our man tidying up Health: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/424307/dhb-resignations-there-s-a-kind-of-resistance-to-a-different-point-of-view
Levy here is Crown Monitor over Canterbury District Health Board – a public entity.
Dr Levy, an experienced senior health administrator and former chairperson of both Waitemata and Counties-Manukau DHBs, told Nine to Noon he was brought on board last year because of the serious financial position of the Canterbury DHB – at the time it was seriously deteriorating, he said…
He said the context was more complex, because Canterbury had experienced a lot of difficulties, however, since 2014-2015 revenue has increased from $1.55 billion to $2.06b – a 33 percent increase.
“An appointment of this nature is a signal to the organisation that there is diminishing confidence in its ability to manage its finances.”
Costs had risen from $1.57bn to $2.21bn – a 41 percent increase. “So there’s a sustained expenditure gap between what is coming in as revenue and what is being spent.”

So the whole matter is to squeeze services to fit the money on offer, not to provide the services needed in a city still suffering from the effects of numerous earthquakes on buildings and people, and years of neglect towards the City’s needs. And someone from the private sector is brought in to do so, thus guaranteeing that there will always be a denial of service to real needs by these puffed-up money men clustering around this busy and festering money pot that is health.

Dr Lester Levy here has a position with Southern Cross private health :
https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/nz/news/breaking-news/southern-cross-health-society-names-strategic-advisor-172299.aspx
Jul.10/19 Reporting to CEO Nick Astwick, Dr Levy will interface with the global and local health insurance, medical and academic communities to keep New Zealand’s leading health insurer at the forefront of innovation.
His PR line: In the newly created role, [Strategic Advisor] Levy will look at the future of healthcare in a part-time capacity, advising and helping to shape the insurer’s overall strategy. In particular, he will be responsible for evolving the future operating model and plans for digital health and value-based contracting to achieve optimum health outcomes. Levy will also interface with the global and local health insurance, medical and academic communities, and will report to Southern Cross Health Society CEO Nick Astwick.
Levy brings extensive knowledge of the health sector, having started his working life as a medical doctor. He then became a chief executive, entrepreneur and chair of boards of directors across a diverse range of industry sectors.

Lester Levy was appointed as Crown Monitor I think by Dr David Clark, previous Health Minister. He appointed Levy to replace Mr Chai Chuah, previously Malaysian who had been ‘prominent’ in our Health Service for 25 years. (Nobody seems to be steady and reliable and able to juggle health needs, building requirements, and a budget satisfactorily.)
Mr Chai Chuah’s PR line: He has a passion for building a health system together with other partners, which is powered by the needs of the people it serves and which is prepared for rapid changes in technology and demographics.
He is focused on driving change in the way the health system works with other public services, communities and other non-public services partners to improve health outcomes, increase access to quality care, improve financial and clinical sustainability, and to develop a unified health system.

It can be seen that when there are private business heads involved – that priorities may be shifted radically. This is how a report on Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital rotated.
But the LTIP report did not go directly to the minister. Instead, it went to the Capital Investment Committee (CIC), a body charged with advising the minister on spending priorities. CIC members are drawn from the public health sector and private commerce; its chair is Evan Davies, boss of Todd Property and former boss of Sky City Entertainment Group.
Levy said he did not know what happened to the report. But he does know the CIC works very slowly. It’s not a problem limited to healthcare; he sees the same in transport. He painted a picture of high-powered committees, set up to help government spend tax dollars efficiently, that slow everything down and bury urgent proposals in a bureaucratic mire.
Apr.14/18 Lester Levy: The health boss who’s had enough
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12032034

But Levy is also Chair of Auckland Transport. Does he know when’s he’s had enough?
He is/was: He is chairman for the environmental and engineering consultancy Tonkin + Taylor.
Jun 5, 2019 – Dr Lester Levy joins AUT as its new Professor of Digital Health Leadership.
Background: He is South African. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11307327 – 2014 Twelve Questions: Lester Levy

This guy is a one man band and it makes me feel queasy thinking about the others like him, taking charge of our government services and running them to suit others’ criteria not ours, not our needs, not our timelines. There will be a number of them who will wield a lot of power – some to be seen as go-to men and women when the government and officials are in a spot that they can’t find listed in the neolib manual of fibs and lies.

Now for some light relief while the above facts get digested. Two one-man bands for your gratification:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0caSdOgTgk Anderz Flanderz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXMuWi0dUBc CigoMan Band, Croatia.
Marc September 5, 2020 At 11:11 pm

The CENSOR struck again!

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